Rose, 59, didn't listen to her mother, who told her to quit smoking. "As a matter of fact, she said she was going to kill me if she caught me," the former Victoria, Texas resident said in a video produced by the CDC as part of the 2014 installment of its Tips from Former Smokers Campaign.

Decades later, Rose said she now realizes what her mother was talking about. After smoking for years, Rose was diagnosed with lung cancer while being evaluated for surgery on her leg. She was forced to move to Houston, where her son also lives, for treatment, CDC spokesman Darrell Konter said. Rose has had chemotherapy and surgery on her lungs, and recently underwent additional surgeries to remove tumors from her brain.

Rose, who started smoking when she was 13, said she regrets having to leave small-town life in Victoria but tries to spend as much time with her grandchildren as she can.

The "Tips from Former Smokers" campaign has been a successful one for the CDC. The agency reported last year that the ads, which tell shocking and graphic stories of real people affected by smoking, motivated 1.6 million smokers to make an attempt to quit in 2012.